Saturday, 1 February 2014

Our second game of In Her Majesty's Name

I didn't take so many photos this time around, but in brief here is how the battle played out:

The two companies converge on the Ancient temple.

Hiding in the misty lands of the Carpathian mountains was an Ancient temple dedicated by Attila the Hun to his gods. In its centre is a sealed well of fearsome potential power, the very power that the Hun called upon to help him to subjugate so much of Europe. The Society of Thule had recently uncovered a tome that had been hidden within an old monastery outside Augsburg, which has revealed the location of this temple. Von Stroheim immediately put a party together to infiltrate the Austrian Empire and investigate. Little did he know that the mole within the Society that reports to the Tsar had been at work again. Colonel Razin and his crew were immediately dispatched from Russian Poland. As the Prussians neared the end of their journey they were about to be surprised...

Everyone onto the Temple!

The game began with a mad rush of running as both sides tried to get to the temple first. Dan and I were a little unsure of whether the extra movement for running could be added onto climbing a vertical surface. We agreed that the running bonus could be used prior to and after the climb, allowing him to use Yuri's speed to bound into the temple and block the stairs against my Prussians. This set the pattern for the game, as the Prussians attempted to force their way into the temple held by the Russians.

Yuri has obviously been eating a few to many pots of honey. No-one can get past.

The bear proved far more resilient this game, as we were aware of how all of the special rules affected combat. Meanwhile the other jagers sniped at the Cossacks on the temple mound and Krieg started moving around to outflank them.

The girls gang up on poor old Krieg.

Solokhna managed to raise some zombies in this game, but the 3" range means that she is often exposed to danger, and she spent a good part of this game fleeing from hand to hand combats. Colonel Razin went head to head with a zombie and managed to roll a 1 for pluck again! Grigori also lasted only a couple of turns before being shot down by a jager. I have to admit, Dan's rolling was pretty unlucky. Olga and Krieg went toe to toe for several turns, and it took Dan and I a bit of time to get around the idea of firing in the shooting phase whilst in hand to hand combat. To be honest, I'm still not sure I've quite got it figured out right.

Zombie party

Von Stroheim leaped up onto the temple to attack Yuri from behind, while the pathetically fragile Dr Kobalt engaged him from the front. The end result was a stalemate. Olga and Solokhna finally knocked over Krieg and put the boot in to end the long running combat between them. The final Cossack Zombie went down and the game ended on Turn 12. A points count up declared the Society of Thule the winners of the scenario. It felt more like a tie though.

Determined not to lose an item of such power to the Society of Thule, Solokhna cast a spell before she retreated with the wounded Grigori and Colonel Razin. It brought down a cloud of noxious gas around the well that Von Stroheim and Dr Kobalt has to flee. This was followed by a spell of shadows that saw the temple fade into mist, and then disappear altogether. If the Tsar wouldn't have access to this artifact, no one would!

Thanks guys. It was a fun game, made even better by Dan's exasperation with Colonel Razin! As a measure of the game's enjoyability he went straight home and purchased two factions after coming to visit.